Things to do with the kids – when you're stuck indoors

Here at Culture Whisper, we love to give you recommendations for all of the fabulous things you can do in London with your children.

But sometimes, whether you need to or want to, you're going to stay home with them – not at a club or a camp, but within those four walls where you eat, sleep and tidy way more than you want to.

Here are some tried and tested ideas for an enjoyable – rather than maddening – day in. And yes, the house will likely be a tip but we've got a tip for that: just breathe.

Our other top tip? Keep to a routine, or a semblance of one. Break up the day into activities or blocks of time, and if you're ever at a loss for what to do, eat (or make something to eat!).



Now is the time to take every toy out of the cupboard. Photo: Ryan Wallace

How to keep your pre-schoolers occupied...

• Let them do something they never normally get to: whether it's pulling off all the bedding, dragging it downstairs and turning the living room into a den world, then eating every meal as a picnic under the sheets... or letting them dig up some soil in the garden (impromptu mud club, anyone?), there's a real thrill in doing something simple, but illicit. Also, if you don't already have them, invest in some wipe-clean, glass-safe felt tips or crayons. Nothing feels quite so good as drawing on the windows...

• Speaking of digging... Pre-schoolers love all kinds of sensory activities: digging, mixing, making 'potions' with all kinds of ingredients. Take out a range of materials that they can mix, mush and splash, whether you fill up a sink with washing-up liquid and water so they can give their boats a go on the sea or wash their dolls, or let them mix some leaves, dirt, flowers and water from the garden to make 'perfume'. Another fun sensory activity is to get shaving foam, mix it with food colouring, and spread it on a baking tray or paper for them to 'do painting'.

• Take every toy out of the cupboard: Even if you've been mindful about your toy accumulation with your toddler – maybe you've been renting toys instead of buying – it's likely you still have a range of items they've never really played with or haven't grown into yet. Well, what are you waiting for? From blocks to number cards, games to soft toys, this is the moment to throw all of the inhabitants of the house a tea party or try to build a tower that's 100 blocks high.

• Put on some music: There's a reason you've been paying for weekly music classes for your little one and taking them to library sing-a-long sessions. They love it. You don't need to dig out a ukelele at home – just switch on the Sonos. Who knows, if you play the soundtrack to & Juliet enough, they may even start asking for it...

• Potty training time? You were going to wait until the summer months, but another good time to potty train is when you've got absolutely nowhere to be. It can take two days, two weeks, or months, but don't stress – it will happen. Also, staying dry at night doesn't need to happen immediately – why not invest in reusable nappies until then? They're so pretty – and eco-friendly.

Craft time! Photo: Mike Fox

How to keep the school-age kids occupied...

• Practise mindfulness: Include mindful practices in your routine each day: start off with some meditation, practise yoga together, cuddle up under a weighted blanket and have a chat and pour some essential oil in a diffuser and breathe. Before bedtime, have your child write down a few of their favourite – and least-favourite – parts of the day (The HappySelf Journal is a great tool for this.) If they're feeling anxious, it can help to read books (try Ruby's Worry, by Tom Percival). If you're looking for a cute picture book to get your little one feeling yogic, Yoga Babies by Fearne Cotton is just adorable. We also encourage you to get the kids to memorise every inspiring line in Charlie Mackesy's The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – we're giving it to everyone we know. Also, you've heard we're all adopting Namaste as our official, no-touch greeting, right?

• Get your craft on: Or do some of those science experiments you've successfully put off by distracting them with ice cream. Alka Seltzer, baking soda and vinegar can make a volcano explode, while using old magazines to collage notebooks or turning those 100 Amazon boxes from your loo-roll order into houses can occupy the best part of a morning. If you're inside for days, watercolours and acrylics will likely be brought out at some point. If you can't bear the thought of that, buy a long butcher paper roll and tape it the length of the table so they can draw, doodle and write (this works well for siblings, who can create a collaborative story together).

• Read, read, and read some more: Turning your child into an avid reader – especially if you're one – is wonderful, and a day spent with books is a day well spent. Instead of going back to the same books you read time and time again, try something different: that childhood classic you loved but haven't had a chance to read to them yet, the poetry book from your favourite poet (get them to alternate reading poems aloud; they'll love it), or spend the day in bed listening to the entire Harry Potter series together. The next day, you can start the films...

• Do the kid project that's been hanging over your head: Every parent has one (ours is building Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts). Maybe yours is reading The Wind in the Willows. Or teaching them to use the sewing machine. Or how to touch type. There's no time like the present...

Baking is always fun. Photo: Brooke Lark

• Spend your day in the kitchen: When in doubt, bake. Kids will never lose interest in mixing, stirring and sampling, especially if there's chocolate involved. While cupcakes are an obvious one for their decorating potential, a couple of fun and easy ideas we've recently discovered include cheese straws (you only need puff pastry, Cheddar and some flour) and madeleines (provided you have the tin, they take less than 20 minutes to mix and bake and they're wonderfully satisfying). You can also opt for healthier cooking together: introduce them to plant-based goodness with scrummy smoothies (sneak some veg into your berry smoothie with a courgette and some spinach), or try making chickpea curries and rainbow-hued fruit salads.

• Watch TV: There is some brilliant kid-friendly TV on at the moment, from Studio Ghibli animations on Netflix to Noughts and Crosses on BBC One. For younger ones, we've also noticed the televised adaptations of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler favourites, from Zog to Room on the Broom, are all on BBC One. They're essentially the stories on screen, word for word (with wonderful actors like Helena Bonham Carter, James Corden and David Tennant doing the voices), so these feel more like a live performance of the text than screentime.

• Accept that there will be more screen time: Whether your child is a Fortnite fan or your teen rather obsessively makes videos on TikTok, this is unlikely to stop – in fact, it will definitely increase. And that's OK – a week of non-stop gaming doesn't make you a bad parent. We do have one trick up our sleeves that tends to be a hit with the seven-to-11 crowd: a Perplexus. It's a 3D logic maze puzzle they can sit and do for hours on end. Worth a try anyway...

• Do some schoolwork: Screen time can be an effective way to get kids to do some learning, if you're home for days on end. Duolingo is handy for picking up another language (it would be rather satisfying if they stayed home for two weeks and went back to school fluent in German, wouldn't it?). If your child has a Times Table Rockstars account, they'll enjoy logging on to do that daily, or try the app Hit the Button – it's free and great for their mental maths. Squeebles is popular for learning spellings. We also love the idea of encouraging them to do something more creative, like writing a haiku, comic or newspaper article. They can even write their own version of the next chapter in a favourite book they're reading.